NICER observation list: Target ID 253101

In 2013, PSR J1023+0038 transformed from a rotation-powered radio millisecond pulsar state to an accretion-disk-dominated X-ray pulsar state, where it has remained since. In its current accretion-disk state it shows coherent X-ray pulsations, suggestive of active accretion onto the neutron star surface at very low luminosities (~10^33 erg/s). Using these pulsations we have found that in the X-ray state the pulsar is spinning down 25% faster than in the radio state. We propose to extend our timing solution with NICER through an impending state transition in the near future, which would be immensely helpful for understanding how tMSPs undergo sudden state transitions and enable us to constrain accretion models.